Chennaites would well remember this project
that ran into many a political troubles ~
first conceived in mid 1970s, the
Veeranam project, was to deliver water to the parched metropolis of
Chennai. The pipes at some point were
lying ungainly at many places, providing housing for some .. .. years later
water was not to flow from the parched
Veeranam tank, 235 km away from the city, but instead the Chennai Metropolitan
Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metrowater)
dug out a network of 45 deep
borewells north of the tank.

On third day of
Brahmothsavam of Sri Azhagiya Singar (25th June 2018) – it is Garuda
vahanam in the morning and ‘Hamsa
Vahanam’ in the evening. The
Thiruvallikkeni Hamsa vahanam is one of the heaviest among the vahanams. Today being ‘Aani Anusham’ – it marks the
sarrumurai vaibhavam of Acharyar Nathamunigal, who was extolled with such high regards by Sri Alavanthar who
in his ‘sthothra rathnam’ praises his spiritual master Svami Nathamuni in three
hymns. Svami Nathamuni is identified as
the eternal refuge both in this world and the next.

At Chennai, in
summer we start worrying about the drinking water as the storage capacity in
the tanks that supply water to the metropolis run dry. In the sweltering heat – residents are worried about
water shortage. Every street we see
water tankers and people running after them with colour colour plastic
pots. Though there are four reservoirs
of Poondi, Cholavaram, Redhills and Chembarakkam as lifelines for drinking
water needs of Chennaites, there is another important water source that
supplements daily water supply to the city and that is more than two hundreds
of kilo meters away…… The lake spoken in
Ponnyin selvan is about is 235 km away
from Chennai, yet becoming its lifeline, supplying roughly 50 to 180 million
litres of water to the city every day.
The lake owes its existence to Chozha
prince Rajaditya who in the 10th century
assigned his men the task of excavating this tank, to collect the
surplus waters of the Kollidam River.

In the 1830s, Arthur Cotton, the engineer who later
harnessed the waters of the Krishna and Godavari, studied the tank in detail.
He noted that there was no serious defect in the tank (this, 900 years after it
was constructed) .. in recent decades much water has flown in concrete pipes
becoming hotly debated corruption topic.
The Veeranam lake derived its name from the nearby place ‘Veera Narayana
puram’ which is of great significance to Srivaishnavaites. The Veeranam project, to supply water to
Chennai, was conceived in 1967; later got mired in rampant corruption; once
there were so many pipes lying unutilized in the city that were synonymous with
the corruption in the project . The
project's completion in 2004 was a major political victory for the AIADMK
government of the time due to the project's long history of corruption and
politicking. At some point of time, water started flowing from the lake to
Chennai.

In SriVaishnava
Satsampradhayam, great emphasis is on ‘Guru Parampara’ that starts from Sriman
Narayana Himself, down to Sri Nathamunigal who has to be remembered ever for
what he gave us – *Sri Naalayira Divyaprabandham*. Sri Nadhamunigal was born in Anusha nakshatra of ‘Ani’ month at Sri
Veeranarayanapuram. Sri Nathamuni went
on a long pilgrimage that took him to holy places like Mathura, Vrindhavan, and other holy
places including Puri. Back home, upon
hearing some Srivaishnavaites reciting Thiruvaimozhi pasuram (that had sort of
become extinct ) ‘Aaravamuthe’ and curious to know the rendering in full ~ he followed its trail that led him to
KUmbakonam; Lord Aravamudhan directed him to ThiruKurugoor; with the divine
blessings, collated Sri NalayiraDivyaprabandham and thence onwards these hymns
are continually sung in Divyadesams and
other Sri Vaishnavaite temples, Dravida Veda.

Nathamunigal was
also a great Bhakti Yogi and practiced the Yoga of eight accessories ( ashtAnga
yoga); he authored the treatise “Yoga
Rahasya”. He was also an exponent of
divine music who initiated the ‘singing
of divyaprabandham ~ now known as ‘Arayar Sevai’. Without this great Acharyar’s
efforts in retrieving aruliCheyal,
theVaishnava World would not have got the rich possessions that we have
today. Alavanthar in his
SthothraRathinam sings the glories of Nathamunigal in the first 3 slogas.

Acharyar Nathamunigal
codified the treasure of the most divine ‘Nalayira Divya Prabandham’. He also
revived the Adhyayana Utsavam instituted by Thirumangai Azhwar. After him, the Guru paramparai mantle passed
on to Uyyakondar, Manakkal nimbi and
thence to Yamunacharyar @ Aalavandhar, the grandson of
NathaMunigal.

Salutations to Naatha
muni who had the single minded devotion to the Lord and who is the treasure of
both Gnaana and Vairaaghya. At
Thiruvallikkeni Sri Nathamunigal had purappadu with Lord AzhagiyaSingar in hamsa
vahanam. Here are some photos taken
during the Brahmothsava purappadu of Sri AzhagiyaSingar.